School can't see our application

[Heckythump1]

I've just dropped DD off at nursery (part of the school her sister goes to) and they were concerned as to why I hadn't applied for her school place for September as they can't see her on their list?
I applied at the start of December, so I'm a bit worried about this, we absolutely couldn't cope if she didn't get into the same school as her sister.
(We live one street from school, so with big sister already on roll, we should be pretty much guaranteed a place)
Any ideas as to why school can't see it?!

We did move house in November, so I waited until after that to apply, but can't see that would make any difference?

Maybe your application didn’t go through reapply as quickly as possible.

Have you logged into your LA's portal (or whatever you use) to make sure you actually submitted your choices? I remember a friend one year filled everything in, including school choices but didn't actually submit.

I've got the confirmation to say it's all gone through and is correct though, it's really strange!
They said they will look into it again today and see if they can find out what's going on.

I'm applying for a primary school place for my 4 year old in the UK not an American college place, but thanks, I think? 🤣

Yep I've checked about 5 times now, definitely says it's been submitted.

We're in Devon if it makes any difference.

Can you forward your confirmation email to the school for them cross check? It's one of those situations where although it should be OK to rely on a confirmation email, the complications if it goes wrong would make me want to be extra extra sure it has been correctly received.

Hope you get it sorted out.

In that case I wouldn't worry. It wouldn't surprise me if schools couldn't see specific data until they're told who has accepted offers. You've got proof it went through. If for any reason it hasn't and you would have got a place if it had then you've basically got an airtight appeal sorted.

It is likely an error on the school's behalf. There was a thread like this another year. The school admin have probably printed out a nursery list and ticked off who has applied and made and missed your child off. Get them to check again and it's likely fine.

I'm not sure if the school would even get a list now before the application date?

They might just have been relying on the nursery teacher asking parents who has applied where.

So long as the LA has confirmed your application I wouldn't worry. The school isn't really involved in the process.

The nursery teacher did ask a while ago if we'd applied, obviously we said yes, and it's her that said this morning that they can't see DD on their list and she even said she remembered me saying we had applied.
I'm assuming they get an updated list of how many applicants etc every so often, I'm not sure.
I've emailed the admissions team at the LEA, but says it can take 7 days for a reply, which we don't really have as applications need to be by the 15th!
Arghhhh this should have been so straightforward!

I doubt the school will necessarily know who has applied through LA yet. Is there a supplementary form to deliver to the school itself?

The applications are not updated particularly frequently. We have only had 2 updates since the window opened. The LA decide when they will push through applications an update the lists. The school is unlikely to see all the applications at the moment, if they are given visibility of them.

Firstly find your receipt for submission. (An email confirmation or such like)

Also, if you live just over an authority border, because you apply to your own authority, LAs don't exchange applications until the first week in February, so if this the case, your application won't be visible until they are available for processing.

All the info is with the LA isn't it? It doesn't go to schools. Have you contacted the local LEA office to work it out?

It depends on whether the LA completes the whole process or whether schools have to do any of it.
We are a Trust, but we are part of the LA'S coordinated scheme. We do all the processing for our applications so we are given access to the number coming in, as we have to plan staff for February half-term to process applications, rank them and submit them back to the LA.
In our county, LA schools have to confirm siblings, so they get access too.
The LA don't update applications everyday. They do a bulk update every month or so and then the day after the deadline. Once a bulk update is done, the applications are visible on the portal.

I emailed the LEA admissions service and they said that they can see our application, it just hasn't been verified yet, once verified school will be able to see it :)
School also said they will be ringing the admissions service tomorrow.
So all is good!

If you moved house recently the delay in verification may be with cross-checking your address against your council tax registration.

I know the OP is resolved now but just to say this isn't the case everywhere. Where I teach we can see first and second choice applications to our school, including ones that have been put through in the last week or so. It's nothing to do with us though, it's down to the LA to resolve any issues and allocate places.

Great update, @Heckythump1 !

This is interesting to me because I have arranged a few last minute tours of schools in the week before the deadline. The schools were extremely accommodating and also very encouraging about getting a place etc…could this be a sign that they know application levels are generally lower this year?

We receive the applications to sort in February because we do our own admissions. We don't see anything before this.

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